Armies on Parade! Results are in!

Today was parade day!

I managed to finish everything yesterday evening, but while doing so I discovered a lot of small holes in the expandable foam where the paint hadn't covered the foam. I covered all that I found yesterday, but while setting up the board today I saw several more. So I hoped people wouldn't notice it too much. Apart from that I was quite happy with everything.

I had not tried to put everything up on the board, but I had thought out how I would like to do it. Here it is all set up and ready for the parade.

There are a few different scenes on the board. One of them is this where the Big Mek (Mek Gyvva) meets with the team of Grot Mechs who build the crazy weapons he thinks up.

Here is a close up of the Grot Engineseers or Mechs, The one in front on the right is the leder and he has lifted his arm in salute for the Big Mek.

Here is a better picture of Big Mek Gyvva. I might give him a new name in the future if I find an ork that is quite a lot bigger, as I would like my biggest Mek to be big both in size and stature. But I am very pleased with the look of this one, and I am very happy to use him as Mek Gyvva even though I have another Mek who is just as big.

A Grot tank is out in the terrain, while the Rokkit trucks are driving up to the field where they will test fire their Grot missiles.

On the top, the Rokkit trucks are lining up to fire as a single grot tank armed with a  lascannon is standing guard looking for enemy aircraft. On this side you can still see the reegular mechanicum scull on the tower. I am sure the grots will change this too eventually (but I only had one skull to use).

The orks that ride in the Morkanaut are out in the field while the grots are working on fixing some minor electrical issues and reloading the weapons.

The Mech Grots have started to adapt the area to their liking, and have stated by making their own version of the mechanicus holy cog symbol by tearing down the human looking skull on the wall and replacing it with one more fitting for orks and grots.

On the hill the stompa Da Punisha is standing guard in case the Tyranids or the Dark Eldar from the neighbouring tables feel like trying something...

Here is a better picture ofthe skull symbol on the front. What the picture isn't showing so well is the weathering that I did with Doombull Brown and Ryza Rust on the spikes at the bottom of the skull. But when I take my table home from the Games Workshop store in a while I will line up the different units and take some pictures to present on this blog. I will then take better pictures of this.

There are several Grots outside on the stompa, worrking on small repairs. One of them is either being a daredevil, or he has slipped while working and is now hanging on for dear life. It's a good thing he is wearing a helmet...

I wanted to add a little color to the board, as it looked very brown, so I found a broken pipe from the Promethium relay pipe set, and glued it on. Then I used a bright green to paint the river of sludge and then pored on a solid amount of Nurgle Rot on top of it.

The people that came in to the store and voted liked what I had done this year, and I got my first Armies on Parade award, earning myself a third place. Here is the bronze medal on the table.

Here is a better picture of the bronze medal. I am very happy with winning third place, as this is the first time on three tries that I actually win something in Armies on Parade.

I was also awarded a diploma for "Best monster or machine" for my Stompa, and that was also very fun. But in all fairness I think it was because they had enough diplomas to go around, as the Tyranids on the table beside me were better. They were the best painted 'nids I've seen at Games Workshop, but he won "Best themed army" and also won the gold medal.

That sums up the Armies on Parade for 2018, and the #AoP tag can get a little rest until it is time to do some serious thinking about the 2019 entry. I already have a few things in mind that I will explore. If I do as I have so far, then next year should be a Age of Sigmar entry, and then I am toying with an idea of an entry with the Kharadron Overlords. If I go with Warhammer 40K then it might be a two level board with Imperial Guard and some urban warfare. But I am leaning towards the Kharadron as I would love to paint those models.

...and suddenly it's fall...

Summer has come and gone with me not getting much done, but now it's fall and things have started to happen again.
Armies on Parade is about one and a half month away so my main focus is on finishing my entry for that. It is as mentioned earlier Orks, and I'm going for an Ork encampment where they have a small workshop with Grots working on repairing existing warmachines and weapons and building new ones.
It will not be as many figures on the table as last year when I fielded a Dwarf/Duardin clan going to war, but I will have some figures and some warmachines.
Right now I am working on a little bit of everything, trying to paint everything up to a good standard. The good thing with the Armies on Parade competition is that it is the total result that counts and not how you have painted each individual model. And it is everyone that comes to the store that votes so it is not the well known painters that will win (although they sometimes do as they are good at what they do). Everyone has a fair chance, and I like that.

So far I have painted the main parts of my Orks and Grots, the skin and clothes are done but I still need to work on tools/weapons, eyes and mouths and a few minor details before everything get a wash of Nuln Oil to finish it off after the bases are done.
For the bases I'm thinking of using either the Agrellan or the Stirland textured paint. My first board was painted Martian Ironearth and last year everything was Astrogranite Gray so I think one of the browns will fit my Ork army. I should probably try to keep my armies with similar bases as they might face each other on the same gameboard if I ever get around to making one, but I like to be able to do some variation too. And the bases I will use for my Deathwatch will not look that good on my Orks. 

I'll see what is most possible to get as a similar cheap paint for my board, but at the moment I am leaning towards the lighter Agrellan color as it is lighter and will brighten up the figures a little. Especially since Orks are rather dark with their green flesh and purple or black clothing.

I am working on the details of Da Punisha, my Stompa, and there are lots of both big and small details to paint up in different colors. The big trick for the Stompa is to paint in such a way that details stand out but not making it too colorful as it's supposed to be black.

The three mobile Rokkit lauchers are mostly painted, and the Rokkits themselves are also mostly done.  I hope to have these finished in a few sittings. The cars are painted Khorne Red and the Rokkits are black with red, yellow and white details.

I have also done a lot of painting on my home made Grot tanks, and I have started to put the details on them. They are all Khorne Red with Leadbelcher barrels and belts. The belts will be lightly drybrushed with Ryza Rust to give them a worn look, but I will have to decide if this should be done before or after the wash is applied. At the moment I'm thinking after to keep the rust color fresh.

The final big thing that is built is a Morkanaut but that needs priming before I can start to slap the paint on it. I am still debating if I should go for Khorne Red like they're usually painted, or let it be black like the Stompa but with more colorful details (maybe black with red details?). If I go for the last option, this could be to the specific likings of one Big Mek and he could have more black vehicles and warmachines in the big Ork army I will eventually make. Then I could have other Meks or Big Meks with more traditional cravings like red or yellow.

Next week I will make the size of the tabe in paper, so I can see how much space what I have now takes up on the board and plan how I can build the terrain pieces I'd like to have on the board. I would like to get that built quite soon as there are lots of small details to paint on the new Sector Mechanicus terrain. I also hope to get in a few pieces of the old Imperial terrain on the board to act like ruined buildings and some broken pipes and things like that.

Armies on Parade 2018

I would have loved to make a table both for the Fantasy (Age of Sigmar) and for the 40K tournament. I've had several ideas about what to do for a long time, but I have to start to see my own limitations. I am a slow painter, and I need to have the right amount of models and have them painted to a high standard  no matter what army I choose.
I have an idea for Kharadron Overlords for AoS/Fantasy, but they take a long time to paint. So I think I will go for a 40K entry this year, and go for an Ork scene. After all the Kharadons will still be there for next year, and who knows maybe next year I can start real early and with a purpose in mind.

Last year I had a two stories high board with a mine at the bottom level and a fortress wall on the top. This time I will keep to one level.
I'd love to build something that can serve as an Ork production facility where the Mek boyz build their weird creations. But I am not sure I can pull off the production area itself. What I can pull off is the area where they show off what they have built or where things are tested.
If I have space for it, I can add some huge doors of some sort to the wall of the diorama to give the impression of a production hall of some sort.

On a vantage point I will have my only built Stompa - Da Punisha - stand guard and drawing attention to the table. Then I'll add some of my own vehicles like the Grot tanks and the mobile rokkit launchers, and maybe if I have time and space a walker or two (either the modified Sentinel or the modified Landspeeder or both). What I choose also depends on who I find to be the pilots or drivers of the vehicles, as I would like them to look good as well. When it comes to the Landspeeder I might close off the driving compartment to give the build more armor, and that might also make the pilot part a bit easier to solve.

I will have some Grots in red robes, representing Techpriests. They will be Fantasy Night Goblins (or Moonclan Grots as they are called now) with arms from 40K Grots holding mechanical stuff. Everybody knows that Techpriests and Techmarines wears red, and the Grots know this too. I think this will be a thing that might get me some positive attention in a competition, and I would love to have them in my army at a later stage anyways.
If I find a way to do it, I will make one stand out as the leader. Then he can stand in front of the others, and sort of present a new creation to the Ork Mek in charge.
The Mek has arrived in his Morkanaut along with a few bodyguards.

If I have enough space on the board, I might even build a ramshackle watchtower and put some guards and maybe a cannon up in it to defend the camp.

I plan to use insulation foam (Byggskum as we say in Norwegian) to build the terrain, as this is a rather fun material to work with both when it comes to how it looks when it is dry and the ability to cut it in to shape where that is needed. I used a special outdoor insulation Styrofoam and plaster last year, and that was a real pain in the ass to work with so I will try and keep away from that. If the Insulation foam doesn't work I can use paper maché but I don't think that will be as solid as the Insulation foam.
And a bonus with the insulation foam is that it is really light weight and don't need a frame.
I don't know how it will work with paint, but I have  big lump of foam from last year that I can use to test with.

Imperial Knights, Orks and more Deathwatch

Lets start with an update on the Deathwatch. I am just missing one killteam of 10 Marines, and a few characters now, and then the entire army is assembled. It's far from finished, but it is assembled and that is a good start and also a first for me.

The last killteam is still on sprues, and I will start to work on them after work on Monday. Depending on how much else there is to do around the house, they will either be done Monday or Tuesday.
Then I have a Primaris Apothecary left to assemble.
I am missing one Chaplain, and he is ordered from Games Workshop so he will be built some time next week.
I would like one more Apothecary, but I'm not sure who that should be. I have the Primaris one and a Terminator, but would have liked one in regular armor as well. I am sure I can find a command squad box to take him from somewhere in my storage, but I also have two resin ones from Forgeworld that stands partially assembled in a box by my workspace. So maybe I will take one of those. I'll figure it out in the near future I guess.
The Terminator Apothechary was quite fiddly to build, as he had a shoulder guard already molded on his shoulder where the Deathwatch one should be. I spent a lot of time with my knife cutting away, but I had to mind some bits that needed to be there and because of this the new shoulder guard going on needed some modification too. Hopefully the flaws I see on him now will look less obvious after he's primed and painted. I might have to use a little Greenstuff on the new shoulderguard to make it look good.

About half my Deathwatch army (probably a little more) is primed and ready for painting, and the rest are waiting to be primed. So I have a lot of painting to do in the coming weeks and months.
In between the painting I will also build some of the flyers and vehicles for the army, but they are expensive, so I plan to add to these nice and slow in the future.

When everything is primed, I will go over the killteams and make sure that they all are legal according to the rules, and that they fit the fluff for Deathwatch. I know I will have to move some Marines around, as I've been told that the Space Wolves usually operate in pairs in killteams. Also I will try to spread the special weapons equally around in the army unless I have a killteam that I would like to give a special mission.

While working on painting my Deathwatch army, I will also work on painting my Orks. I am thinking of making an Ork layout for Armies on Parade (AoP) for 2018, so I will need to paint up a bunch of them.
I will describe the idea closer in a later blogpost, but I'd like to use some of the units I have modified myself like the Grot tanks I have built and primed and the walkers I'm planning on making in the near future. Also I plan to have Da Punisha, my Punisher inspired Stompa, as a centerpiece for the board. Maybe I should also add another Stompa, with modifications on the weapons and with a belly-gun. I think time will tell if that will happen or not. I know I will have such a Stompa for my Ork army in the future, but I am not sure if it will be on my AoP board or not.

Also there is a new Imperial codex out. This is for the Knights, and there are also some very nice new models that have been released for this codex. I have bought a few of the new Knights, and plan to have an army built in due time. The knights are really big models and will almost certainly be seen as centerpiece models when put on the table, so I will take my time and practice on some of the smaller and older knights and built the army a little over time. My idea is to find a colorscheme that will look great for several knights, so that I can have my own knightly house. I know there are so many people building the knights that are described in the codex or in official 40K canon, and a lot of these people will do this better than me. So if I come up with my own house then nobody will be able to compare mine to others directly. And most of the existing houses are white, red or blue, so those colors are not my ideal choices. White is really hard to paint, I have a lot of blue in my Marines and Grey Knights (don't ask) and red needs to be very layered and "shiny" in order to look good on the big areas on the knight armor.
The one thing I know about the knights so far is that I will have yellow and black hazard stripes on the canopy on all of them, so I will work that in to my color scheme.
The only knight that might not get this is the Freeblade built on the Canis Rex model. This I plan to paint black and call him the Black Knight.

Ork update

This weekend I have continued to work on my Stompa.
It took some time getting the glue to set on some of the larger parts, so I couldn't do as much as I had wanted, but I think I will get the rest done this afternoon if nothing very important comes up at short notice.
What remains is gluing on two poles to the shoulders and back of the Stompa, the big scull on the belly, and a lot of metal struts around the bottom part.
There will be five pieces that will not be glued on until after I have primed and done a little bit of detail painting.
Two armor panels in the back are partly covering up a driveshaft of some sort, and I would like to paint the pipes and the other parts that will be partly visible behind the panels before I glue them on.
Also there are three armored viewports on the belly of the Stompa where there are Grot heads visible behind them. I will paint those heads green after the entire Stompa is primed, and then glue the hatches on. The five parts will be primed with Imperial Primer, and then painted up along with the rest of the Stompa. When everything is painted up I will glue on the Grots that came with the Stompa on good locations where they can add to the narrative of the model.

I used some liquid greenstuff on the Stompa on Saturday to cover the cracks between the panels that were not supposed to be there, and I think that helped the overall look of the model. When it is primed it will hardly be visible that something has been done to it, and if something should be visible then it can be explained with sloppy or hasty work from the Orks and Grots...

While the Stompa is being worked on and dealt with, I have also started on some other Orks for the army. When I went through my inventory to get the Stompa, I found a boxed set called Sanctus Reach - Stormclaw. In contains the Ork boss Grukk Faceripper (I had built him already), five Nobs, a Runtherder with ten Grots and three Killa Kans
Facing them in combat is several Space Marines from the Space Wolves chapter. After inspecting the Space Wolf Marines, I have decided that it will be too much work to tun them in to Gatekeepers, so I will give them away or trade them to someone who collects this chapter, and concentrate on keeping my Space Marine army to consist of Ultramarines and Dark Angels blended quite seamlessly together.
I have also added some Horus Heresy 30K Space Marines in to my army, as this works well with the fluff saying that the Gatekeepers have been in the outer reaches of the galaxy for a long time, so they naturally have lots of older wargear that they take care of and still use. I will have a few units dressed in Mark IV power armor, and some old style terminators, along with the Marines that came in the Horus Heresy Betrayal at Calth boxed set (that I have two of ). The Idea with the Betrayal at Calth boxes is to paint one box up as Gatekeepers and the other as my Chaos Space Maines - Knights of Oblivion.

But for now I will paint Orks, and along with the Stromclaw box and the Stompa, I will try to paint up some of the Ork models that I have started to work on but not finished. That is a unit of three Killa Kans, a Mek gun (don't remember what version I made it as) with five Grot crew, and some of the old War Trukks that will serve as Warbuggies or small trucks in the army. Three of them are mobile rocket launcers for my Grot rokkits, and I will try and see if I can replace the Ork drivers with Grots to better serve my loose idea for Armies on Parade 2018.

Armies on Parade, finished board (picture heavy)

This weekend was Parade day, and I got everything ready for the event just in time (as usual).
I was washing and basing a lot of Dwarfs Friday afternoon and in to the night.

I see that I have not taken a good picture of the lower table before I put the top on, but hopefully the pictures that are taken under the board shows what needs to be seen.

First up is two pics of the entire table, and then we'll get to closeups of the units.

At the front of the table there was a separate little cave where my White Dwarf subscription Vampire hunter model was located. This model has been laying around my workspace for a long time, but I'm really glad I pulled myself together and finished it, as I think it is a great little model. The next Subscription model to be worked on is the White Dwarf World War 1-style pilot.

Then we have come to the pictures from the mine on the lower level.  The first picture is taken from the front. The Grudge Ponies are going up the hill with full wagons. For this event they were loaded with chocolate that looks like rocks. In the front of the picture the unit with 15 Miners working in the mine can be seen from behind. Then in the middle the Ironbreakers are marching to stop the Goblins in the back. To the far right you can barely spot the old Prospector working on a potential new place to make a mineshaft.

And here are the same scenes seen from the back of the board. I am quite pleased with how the Night Goblins turned out, and look forward to painting up a whole lot of them for my greenskin army in the future.

This picture doesn't really show much of the figures, but I think it shows some of the terrain in a nice way. The small knolls were made with expanding foam (byggskum as we call it in Norway). It was just sprayed in a big lump on a piece of plastic, and when it was all dried up then I carved out the pieces I wanted to use. Next time I work on a board I might use this instead of styrofoam as it looks much more natural. This was proven by the winning entry in Oslo. She had used this material to build up hills on her board.

Here is a closeup of the Grude Pony coming out of the mine, up the ramp. I had a little accident with the moss to the left of the pic, as it was damaged in transport. So I had to do a hasty repair in store before the competition.My wife came up with the idea of attaching moss to the front and side of the opening of the mine to make it look better, and I think it worked well. Next time I plan to do something like this I want to make sure I have dry moss, as that could be glued on. The moss here is attached with wire and gluedots.

To the left of the ramp up from the mine, I had lined up my Dwarf Rangers. They are basically Quarrelers with an axe glued to their back. This used to be a separate unit entry back in the days...

This is the Warden King, and he is the leader of the dwarfs in this keep. He is standing on an oath stone in the front of the outer walls of the keep, rallying his troops around him.

Next up is my Longbeards. I only had time to paint up one box for this competition, but I have two more so this unit will grow in the future. The boxes can be made up as either Hammerers or Longbeards, but I want to use my old metal Hammerers so these new looking dwarfs will all be Longbeards. I'll make one more unit with full command, so I can field two units of 15 or one unit of 20 and one of 10.

An old metal Dwarf Thane on the left. The Thanes seems to have disappeared from the Duardin model range, and I find this a little sad as they used to be the leaders of  their clans. There are many lovely sculpts of Thanes, and I hope to find a way to use several of them in my army.
To the right is a slightly newer metal model, a Dwarf Engineer with lots of guns. 

I am very happy with the beard on the Engineer, and I wish I could remember what color and wash I used to get that look as I would like to have more dwarfs looking like this. It might be the perfect color for my Fyreslayers army. I will try and experiment a bit on spare heads and see if I can recreate it.

I love the old dwarfs, so I just had to have this unit in a visible place on the board. They are in the middle of the board, and have just marched out of the keeps gates. This is a unit of 16 warriors, and they have two handed axes slung over their shoulders. They have a lot of soul and character, and quite a different look from the regular plastic dwarf warriors. They have a more slim look to them, and some of them wears leather vests or sheep skin vests outside their chainmail. They also appear to have groomed beards, not the wild and bushy beards that comes with newer dwarf boxes.
My back story for them is that they have returned from the big city where they live among humans, to assist their clan in times of war. Living around humans have made them adopt some of the human traditions in clothes and style.

The two gun crews are lined up on each side of the gate. I originally had planned to have them on top of the gates, but  in order to do that I would need to modify the gates quite heavily with plastic sheets and I never got to drag myself to a store where I could find what I needed. So I put them on each side of the gate instead. It is not so visible on the pictures, but they both have a trolley of extra ammunition, a scope for aiming and a trough for dipping the rod they use to ready the cannon in. Both cannons also have a shell inside them.
I had a gap between the wall and the mountainside, so it was fixed by adding moss to look like a bush or a small tree.

On the top of the keep a Gyrobomber is hovering. The number is just to indicate that I was the 3rd entry in to the competition, so pay no attention to that. This set was a lot of fun to build and paint right until it was time to build the rotors. I did exactly as the instructions said, and still the rotor blades did not attach perfect. I have more of these, so I will try again at a later time. I had originally planned to have a blimp, but I never got around to making the cabin on it. I will make one in the future though, and maybe a few balloons, so that my Dwarfs can have that even though their cousins (the Kharadron Overlords) have airships that they will bring in support if it is called for.

Here is another Engineer, this one is a resin model. He has a huge mechanical hammer. Sorry for the bad pic of him, but I had to take the pictures after my army was set up on the table, so I couln't get any better angle without messing up one of the units on front of the wall.

Then we have a former character, the Engineer who lost his arm and made a mechanical one. I belive his name was Burlok Damminson, but I am not sure what he will be named in my army yet. In the Games Workshop catalogue he is now only known as Cogsmith. I think it's really sad that they removed so many nice characters without introducing new ones, but at least they kept many of the models in the range.

Here are my two Runelord figures. The figure came with alternate heads and arms, so naturally I had to buy two so I could make one of each. They will get names eventually...

This is the last unit I finished before the competition. It is 16 warriors with hand weapons and shields. I like this configuration, as I love the shields the dwarfs have.
I plan to have more Dwarfs armed like this, but also some Warriors with two handed weapons to have this configuration represented as well.
There is a big possibility that this unit will be extended to 30 warriors in the not too distant future.

I also managed to paint up a unit of Irondrakes. Originally I wanted to have more Ironbreakers, but the new plastic Ironbreakers looks so different from the old metal ones that I made them in to Irondrakes instead. I have more boxes of these, so I will do the same as with the Longbeards longer up in this post, and make it so that I can use larger or more units depending on the gameplay. I would also like some more of the old Ironbreakers, so I might look around for some used ones to repaint.

And finally I have two more Grudge Ponies These are loaded with equipment, so I felt it would be better to have them above ground. These will accompany the Dwarfs on their march to war, carrying equipment to the front, and maybe some riches back to the Keep when the fighting is over.

All in all this was a nice event, and there were plenty of people who came by to look and vote. I do not know how many votes I got (and I don't really want to know either). I have come a long way towards getting a Dwarf army ready for the tables by working on this project, and I have many more dwarfs to come in the future. For a little while now I think I will work on something else, but I will continue to expand my Dwarf army until all sets I have bought are assembled, primed and painted. 

And who knows, when that is done, I might return to the army and make another display just for my self...

Armies on Parade - Board update

Yesterday I told about the snags I had while building the Armies on Parade (AoP) board, and that I felt it looked a bit like something a 10-year old kid would do for his home project.

I complained even more to my wife about it from the day I started working on the board and experience the snags, and while I was out leading a youth bigband yesterday she helped me a bit with the finish of the mine (the lower table).

For a long time she has been into scapbooking, and she know a thing or two (maybe even three or four) about washes, shading, and things like that as this is techniques that also is used in that hobby. So she made the mine come more to life with some shadows on the recessed areas and a bit more light where that could be expected. And also she added on some gold and silver areas in the mine, to show off that there are rich mineral ores down there. 

I am very grateful for her assistance, and I think the board increased its quality at once. There are still some work to do on the top table, but this is minor work compared to what needed to be done down in the mines.

My board will automatically look a little less shiny compared to other boards for many reasons. First mine is made of plywood and is thinner and flatter than a Games Workshop tile, second it is a mountain area, so it is mostly gray compared to other boards that can have more color on them.

I had hoped to use a Games Workshop tile for my top, but when I got to the store to see if they had tiles for sale, they were sold out on the Age of Sigmar tiles, and the 40K tiles were city tiles and they are way too futuristic for my purpose. So I ended up with plywood both on top and on the bottom.

And even though my tiles are Mechanicus Standard Gray (with some added shades and highlights) I plan to brighten them up a bit with the dwarfs I bring to the table.

The dwarfs uses many colors, and some of them are quite striking while others are more neutral. There are metal, silver, bronze, gold, greens, blues, yellows and other colors to help lighten the table up a bit. There are also quite a lot of figures that will go on the tables:

Down in the mine I will have 2 Grudge Ponies with carts, and a third on the ramp going either up or down.

20 Nightgoblins as one unit

15 Dwarf Miners working along one wall

1 Dwarf Prospector (old Miner) working as a sort of mini diorama, on a little hill down in the mine. He will have a wheelbarrow and dynamite around him.

10 Dwarf Ironbrakers (the old metal ones) marching to stop the Nightgoblins

and in a special cave I have the White Dwarf subscription Vampire hunter miniature with a coffin with a goblin in it.

On the top table there will be:

2 Grudge Ponies pulling carts loaded with equipment that the dwarfs will carry to war with them.

2 Dwarf Engineers

1 Dwarf Warden King

1 or 2 Dwarf Runelords (little uncertain if I have 1 or 2 of them)

10 Longbeards

10 Irondrakes

20 Dwarf Rangers with crossbows and axes

16 Dwarf Warriors with shields and hand weapons

16 Dwarf Warriors with long axes (the old type of plastic dwarfs)

3 Goblin Nasty skulkers 

2 Cannons with 3 Dwarf crew each (6 figures in total)

1 Dwarf Gyrobomber (helicopter)

This leaves me with 47 figures on the lower level, and 86 figures on the top level (if I get to place them all I will see how much space it actually takes when I set up the board). That is a grand total of 133 figures. 

As promised yesterday, pics will come. I will try to take some pictures on Friday while finishing the boards, and then I will take pictures as I set the board up on Saturday.

Armies on Parade - just a few days away now...

It's just a few days left until Armies on Parade for Age of Sigmar (they split it in two this year and completely forgot the Middle Earth/Hobitt brand while doing it).
My Dwarf board looks like something a 10-year old has put together at the moment, but I am hoping that with a little touch-up with some more paint and details it will look ok before I go to bed on Friday night.
I have encountered almost every snag possible on this project. First of all my glue did not set as I supposed. I bouth special glue for styrofoam, but insted of melting the two plates together it made a small gap between them. But they stuck togehter for the most part... This was very obvious when I started to cut the plates in to the correct basic shapes.

Then the plates were cut in to rough shapes, but now it was almost impossible to cut them in to the detailed shape I wanted to make the mountan sides. Here you can see my design drawn on the styrofoam, but it diodn't end up quite that way.

I thought I could make some nice terrain with plaster, but that dried so fast it was dry before I got it out of the mixing bowl.So the result looked like this when I gave up. The rest of the board was painted over with PVA glue. This took 24 hours to dry, so I lost a lot of time to work on the board while I waited for this. I had thought it might take some hours, but not 24...

There are quite a lot of dwarfs that needs to be painted up and based. Here are some work in progress pictures from the weekend. They are now painted up, but still needs their bases done and a thin layer of wash.

My centerpiece on the top board is the tower gate, and this is what it looks like after wash but before I tried drybrushing it. I was so sure I had gray dry-paint to use for the drybrushing, but that was about the only paint pot I didn't have when I looked through my paint boxes. So I ended up using regular paint and making sure I got most of it out of the brush before I stated. This is the one thing I am satisfied with on the board so far.

The plan for Friday is to base about 60 dwarfs, wash about 30 more and about 25 goblins. Then I will clean up some paint on the boards and add some streaks of gold and silver down in the mine and glue some turf and moss to the top board. Somehow I don't think my wife will see a lot of me before after the AoP event is over...

I will add some pictures of the finished board when I set it up at Games Workshop on Saturday, and post it here when I get home.

More Dwarf progress

Another weekend has passed, and things are still going the right way.
This weekend I have completed the Longbeards and Miners from the last post, so that they now just need their bases done and a thin coat of wash to finish them off. I will do that when I have some more units ready, as this can be done as part of an assembly line.

This weekend I completed my Subscription only Vampire hunter model. The base is done, but I will need to give everything a thin coat of wash after I have glued the different parts together.
I am quite pleased with how it turned out, and while painting this I have found a new color to use for the skin of my Goblin army when I continue to work on them. One unit will be done up for the Armies on Parade (AoP) board, as they will have sneaked in to the mine, and I am hoping to have some Nasty Skulkers ready to hide out on the top level of the board as well.

I have also started to assemble my first Gyrobomber (the long version of the Gyrocopter), and I hope to get this done so that I can add it to my board. The hardest painting is already done, as it was a whole lot of details on the pilot and inside the cockpit that was painted up earlier. This will never be seen, but I was not 100% sure of that when I painted it.
I still have to assemble the rotors, and I will probably do that later this week, and then paint them up separately.
I will need to give everything a nice coat of paint before I assemble any more, as there are lots of details that will be very hard to reach once everything is assembled. But I have a clear plan for what I need and want to do, so hopefully it should be rather easy to get it all painted up in the timeframe I have to my disposal.

The next unit to be painted up is the Imperial Dwarfs, and they have gotten a lot done to them this weekend. I have painted their heads, and glued them on to the torsos I had painted earlier.
All the arms are fully primed. The arms carrying the axes have gotten the first color on them (Rhinox hide for the axe handles) and will get more paint this afternoon.
I love these old Dwarfs as they have a lot of character, and I hope to do them justice so that people who see my board on Parade day will be positive to them. They will be quite visible, as they will be in front of the wall or mountain side, marching towards the Dwarf camp to join up for the battle the Dwarfs are rallying for.

So far I am thinking of putting my Miners and Ironbreakers on the lower level, along with the Vampire hunter and an old Miner figure. If I have time I will make a small mini diorama around the old miner. I will also put some Grudge Ponies in the mine and on the ramp going up or down.

On top there will be some characters (finished), some Engineers (one finished one needs wash), my Ranger unit (finished) the Imperial Dwarfs, and if I get them done in time I have one unit of warriors, one unit of Irondrakes and a unit of Thunderers that can join the army. Also the Gyrobomber will stand on top of a mountainside and I will have a gate that will be guarded, hopefully, by two cannons with crew.

finally some real progress on dwarf units

As the headline says, I finally have some real progress on my dwarfs for Armies on Parade.

The event is on October 28th, so I have just about a month to finish up. After spending almost two years and not getting much finished (but a lot is partially painted), I have finally gotten some real progress.

Yesterday I finished painting the arms and weapons on my first 10 Longbeards. They will be the only Longbeards for the AoP board, but I will paint up 20 more in the future in the same way. It felt good gluing them together and seeing them as a unit for the first time. There are still a little work before they are 100% complete, but not much. 

I have some shoulder guards to glue on and paint, and the banner needs to be finished and glued to the arm of the banner bearer. 

I am still debating as to what color to use on the details of the banner, as there is a wide seam that should be in a contrasting color to the banner itself. The banner is purple, and I am thinking either silver or light gray for the seams, but I am not entirely sure yet. I will have to look in to it this afternoon.

Pictures will be posted when this work is done.

I have also done about 90% on my Miners unit. There are a few details that I need to paint on some of the Dwarfs, and they need a cleanup before they get a gentle wash. But I would have no problem bringing them to the tabletop for a game as they stand today.

Pictures of these will follow.

I am also working on a single model to be located at a special place on my AoP board, and that is the Grombrindal dressed as a Vampire slayer. He was sold with a one year subscription on White Dwarf some years back, and I now see real progress in the process of presenting him in the display.

The base is done, and all parts are assembled and primed.

I started this weekend by painting the skin on his face, but when he is standing up the brim of the hat hides most of it. I will paint his beard gray, as I did with my Longbeards, and his coat will be brown leather. Then I am trying to figure what colors I want to use for the smaller details. 

The base is a stone floor, and on top of that there is a table with a coffin on top. The table is falling apart and a goblet of wine is falling off it. In the coffin there is a Goblin vampire, and I am trying to find out what paint that is best to use to give him sort of a pale green skin.

The table and coffin is painted up and glued together, but I am missing some metal details on the coffin. And I have to paint the goblin inside it...

The next step now is to finish the units and character mentioned above to 100% and then take their pictures.

Then I will start this afternoon to prime the weapons of the next unit that needs finishing, as I have several Dwarf units that are waiting to have their arms and weapons primed and painted. I need to finish three units like this before the parade day, and I would also like to paint a fourth unit that is assembled in the time I have left. I also need to build and paint my board, and my gate and maybe some trees to go on top of it.

Progress on new units

I have gotten in some more painting time, and there are two units that are progessing nicely. 

They are: Dwarf Miners, 15 Dwarfs with musician and standard bearer. I'm not sure where I have them from, but I think they may have been bought on Ebay a long time ago.
My first unit of Miners that I painted many years ago got very dark, with the darkest of blue on their armor, so this time I wanted to do something a little lighter. I went for Death Guard Green, as it looks like a little muted color that I haven't used on any other dwarf units yet.
The chainmail is painted Leadbelcher instead of a more shiny metal color as the Miners wear their armor as much for protection in their daily work as for going to war. I hope to get some more painting done on them this weekend, as I am missing the hair, candles on top of their helmets (with flames on the candles) and some details (lanterns, leather pouches, golden medallions and so on).

The second unit I am working on is a unit I have started some time ago. That is my first unit of Longbeards, 10 Dwarfs with full command. The torsos have been "almost ready" for a while, but now I have primed the arms and heads and have started to paint the heads. My plan is to paint the beards before gluing the heads to the torsos so that I don't spill a lot of gray paint on to the already painted torsos. The arms and shoulderguards are being primed seperately, and I plan to keep them like that until they are painted and ready to be glued on to the torsos.
When this unit is done I can start to prime arms for my Thunderers as I don't have space for too many different small pieces on my table at the same time.

I also have an old metal Miner that I am painting up, and my plan is to have him standing by himself working on locating new oars to mine down in the lower level on my AoP board. The idea is to set him up so that he is visible from at least two sides when you look in to the board.
I think it's cool to see the difference between this old dwarf and the newer figures, as this metal figure has a much more outstanding nose that gives him a totally different character compared to the newer dwarfs that GW have produced. That is some of the beauty (hopefully people seeing my board will agree) of showing off models from different times and ages mixed up together. They are all legitimate GW figures, but some of them are just from a forgotten generation. I am sure the GW team will remember them, but not sure that the young people in the store have ever seen these old metal figures.

I have also sorted all my Chaos models, and placed them in tubs after what chaos god they worship. I didn't think I had that many Chaos Warriors, but almost all the tubs have 20 or 30 warriors in them. But then again, they are the models that introduced me to the Warhammer hobby so they have a special place in my heart.

There are four gods, but I only have figures to follow three of them.
I have a large goup of Chaos warriors that follow Khorne, and that tub also includealmost all the new Blood-something releases that came with the Age of Sigmar starter set and after. There are also some heavy cavalry, represented by 6 Scullcrushers (and I think I have more somewhere else)
The Nurgle tub have the largest model in my army, the Maggoth Lord Bloab Rotspawned, along with several relatively new Nurgle models from the end times releases. Also there are some Plaguebearers, Plague Drones, two sorcerers and the big unit of Chaos Warriros.
The third tray is dedicated to Slaanesh, and here I have a big unit of Chaos Warriors (seeing a pattern yet?) a Sorcerer, and when I find the box he is currently in, I will move Sigvald the Magnifient over to this box. Along with this gang I can field my Daemonettes, and a chariot but they are not in this box.
The last box have the units that doesn't have a Chaos mark, what used to be known as Chaos Undivided. These are Chaos Warriors that will have black armor  and in this box I also have a large chunk of Warriors, some Chosen ones, some Knights in all stages from just awaiting to be based to just been taken off the sprues and a lot of hounds that is only missing their bases.
When my dwarf army is ready for AoS I will try and spend some time painting and basing my Chaos army alongside building other Age of Sigmar sets and 40K stuff.

Progress on the dwarfs

Yesterday I assembled a unit of Dwarf Irondrakes for my slowly growing Dwarf army (or Duardin or Dispossessed as Games Workshop calls them now). The unit has 10 Irondrakes, but I am already thinking of making it twice as big, as I have several boxes of these tough little warriors.
For my Armies on Parade (AoP) board I might settle for 10, but for all other purposes I think I need at least a 20 strong unit. I know Age of Sigmar is often played with smaller units than the old Warhammer FB editions, but still it looks very impressive on the table. I'll check with my local Dwarf expert at GW if he is at wok on Saturday...
Anoter solution for the AoP board is to have a unit of 10 on its way down in the mines, and a bigger unit (or at least a same size unit) marching towards the gate. I'll see how much time it takes to paint this first box to the standard I would like and decide after that.

The Ironbreaker box will either make 10 Ironbreakers or Irondrakes. The difference between them is that the Ironbreakers have axes or hammers and shields while the Irondrakes have special guns (almost like miniature cannons).
My plan originally was to have some Irondrakes and some Ironbreakers, so I think I bought 3 or 4 boxes of these minis. But when I opened the first box I found that they look very different from the original metal Ironbreakers so they will not look good being in the same unit. I think these boxes was the first ones I bought after Games Workshop came out with their new design for the dwarf models.
I remember I was a little disappointed that they had a new look at the time, but not anymore. The new design is good, it just doesn't blend seamlessly with the old one. So the solution is to keep the old ones as Ironbreakers and the new ones as Irondrakes. That way they will be separate units, and the different appearance does not matter anymore.

The next step with the Irondrakes now are priming and painting. As most of the miniature will be silver, I plan to spray them with black primer, and when that is dry I will spray with Leadbeltcher to get the metal on them. Then I think I will try and drybrush them to get a more shiny metal as I usually use silver colors on my dwarfs. My old Ironbreakers was painted with Mithril Silver, but that color is no longer available in the paint range. They have a new paint called Stormhost Silver and for the metal Ironbreakers that I have from the huge Dwarf lot I got, I think this will work well to get them looking the same. For the Irondrakes I think a drybrush with Necron Compound might do the trick, if not I will try some highlighting with Stormhost Silver on them as well.

The nice things with all the different dwarfs is that the arms blend seemlessly between the boxes for most of the units, so it is easy to make units look apart from each other.
An easy swap to make some difference is switching between different banners and poles. And it is also possible to swap hands between units if the dwarf you want to make different is holding one handed weapons or tools.

Space Marines from both sides... and a little dwarf update too

There has been a while (again) since my last update, but from now on there is no excuses for not working with miniatures and updating the blog regularly.
Since my last blogpost I have moved to another house, and even though I still have to find out the best way to organize myself around my workplace, I am up and running.
I have the same sideboard/desk that I had before, but my storage facilites are a little different at the new house, so I am trying to find the best way to set up how I want to have my desk organized regarding building new models and painting existing ones.

Since the last blogpost I have finished assembling all miniatures in the Dark Imperium Startbox.
When I bought the box I didn't really plan to ever field the Death Guard traitor Marines, but when I built them I really got a liking to them so I have decided to field them in my Chaos army. They will probably be their own command, as my original Chaos army is not tainted by any of the Chaos Gods. They will probably field as allies, but I am leaning towards painting them all the same, but add rust and Nurgle Rot to the Death Guard minis. The regular Chaos Space Marines have Chaos Cultists fighting alongside them, and they will also keep their distance to the Poxwalkers fighting alongside the Death Gruard. A possible back story can be that The Knights of Oblivion have been fighting in two different warzones for a very long time and one of the forces has been lured to join Nurgle. I think I can make that work when it comes to fluff, and this will also add a little more backstory to the Chaos Marines.

I have also painted up a smaller starter set called "First Strike". This is a start set with a lot less figures than the Dark Imperuim box, and because of this it is also a lot cheaper. The miniatues in this set can also be bought in four separate boxes, but then they cost a lot more. There are six Primaris Marines in the box. Three Intercessors (the Primaris version of Tactical Marines) and three Reivers (mix between scouts and Assault Marines without jump packs). The box also includes three Death Guard Plague Marines and six Poxwalkers. These models are designed to just snap-fit together, but I glued them anyway as I don't plan to take them apart and I don't want them to loose bodyparts on the battlefield or in transit.

These figures comes in colored plastic, and the Primaris Marines are blue and the traitors green. They still need a good priming and painting though...

The Gatekeepers have also gotten some heavy fire support with a Primaris Redemptor Dreadnought. This Dreadnought is a lot bigger than the classic ones, and was a fun but frustrating build. There are several parts that are supposed to be moveable. Some I understand, others are getting glued together later in the building process anyway... I built mine ending up with one arm that can't rotate, but apart from that all moveable parts work as intended.

I will now take a small break from my Marines to work on my Dwarfs for Armies on Parade.
I assembled two cannons and crew these last days, and I plan on building some scenery for them as part of the Armies on Parade (AoP) board. One cannon is an Organ gun, and the other is a regular cannon.
I had originally planned to field them on top of the wall I have, but they are so wide they will have to go on the ground instead, and I will use two other cannons on the wall.

I hope to find a good place to stand and prime my models in the near future, so I can get started on the painting.

Long awaited update...

I'll start with a follow-up from the last blogpost. The test models of my Daemonettes are almost done. I have painted up two of them with the same colors used on different areas, and I need to decide who I like the best. The only thing that is 100% decided is that the skin will be Daemonette Hide, I mean if I don't use that for them then who should it be for... That means my Deamonettes will be a lot darker than what other people have painted, so I must find a good combination for my palette to brighten them up a bit.

I have done some more work on the Dwarfs too, but still not finished anything new. I've started to paint the hair and beards of my Imperial Dwarfs and also done some more work on the bodies of the Longbeards. The master plan is still to have a board with Dwarfs (or Duardin or Dispossessed as they are called in Age of Sigmar) for Armies on Parade 2017, and I still plan to do it mostly as described earlier in this blog.

This Saturday Games Workshop Oslo held a record attempt. They wanted to set a new record for most infantry models on a gaming table. The rules were simple, the models had to be playable for Warhammer 40K (or Horus Heresy/30K) and they had to have at least 3 different colors on them plus a finished base. These are the same rules as Games Workshop have for using models in tournaments held in their stores. 

They had the old record with about 1700 figures (set earlier this year), and their goal this time was 3000 (later they updated their goal to 4000). 

The new record for most infantry models on a gaming table is... *drumroll* 4422 figures. 

The average number of models that people brought was 220. I managed to scrape together 28 models in total, while the one who brought the most had 750 (among them two full companies of Dark Angels).

The good thing about participating in this record attempt was that I had to get some models based, as all my finished models with wash and bases are in cabinets at the summer house in Sweden.

So i grabbed all the 40K infantry models I had that was at least primed and put them in one of my Crusade cases and set off for the painting table at the store.

The first thing I finished was the Ork Mek that I started to paint in the color class at Games Workshop in January. I gave the base a good slab of Martian Ironearth and it was the first time I used the spatula to get it on the base and not a stiff brush. I think it worked out well, so I immediately started with the base of my Imperial Pilot (don't know the official Games Workshop name for this one). When he was done I used the same basing material for 14 Space Marines from my 2nd Company. They were not 100% finished as they needed some details fixed, but they had all their colors on. I also added a Space Marine captain (master of Relics) that I originally painted up for my Armies on Parade board for 2015, but I didn't find a place for him then so he's been standing among my "almost ready" models since that. 

And finally for the Space Marines they got joined by a Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain that had all his basic colors done but was missing some highlighting.

When this was done, there were a little time left, so I based my Imperial Guard squad with two females in it. This time I used Astrogranite as basing material. My idea is that the Guard will be more in to the urban fighting, so this woud look better for them. Some of my Guard units will be based on the sculpted Sector Imperialis bases, and I think the grey Astrogranite goes best with this. 

This unit is not done by far, but they had 4 colours on them (black primer, Mechanicus Standard Grey, Administratum Grey and Bugmans Glow) and I managed to add Castellan Green to the canteen covers, grenades and a few other parts.

With all models that could be present for the record attempt placed in their appropriate places on the table, I still wanted to paint more. So, I started to work on my Ork Boyz. After using Naggaroth Night on my Mek I got a liking for that color, so I gave a handful of Boyz dark purple clothing and helmets. Among them were two heavy weapon Boyz armed with heavy stubbers.

I also sat for a few hours at home on Sunday working more on the Boyz, so the result now is that I have several Boyz just missing the final wash and their bases before they are ready to join the comming Waaagh. One carrying a mine (not sure if he really is part of the Boyz or some sort of speciaist) one with shoota and choppa, two with heavy stubbers and one with grenades. I also have one with a chainblade that is washed and just waiting for a base. There are several Boyz in my Crusade case just waiting for some attention, and when I get back home from a short spring holliday I will try and do both Dwarfs and Boyz. 

My thoughts for Armies on Parade 2017

Since I didn't get to participate in Armies on Parade 2016, I have started to think of the 2017 event that probably will take place in October 2017.
My plan (as stated earlier) is to participate with the Dwarfs that I didn't manage to finish in time for 2016.
I had planned to present the gates of a Dwarf hold with some mountains, but after seeing how the entries were for 2016 I am now thinking of making two "levels". I will make the top level as intended, but under it I will have another board with caves and tunnels of the hold.
I plan to make at least 3 storylines on the bottom level, one with some Night Goblins that have managed to breech the hold, and are being met by Irondrakes lined up to take care of them.
The second with Grudge Ponies going in and out of the mine on top level, and seeing others going down in to the mine shafts on the bottom level where miners will be at work.
Then the third will be small cave that is closed off and only visible from the front of the board, where Grombrindal dressed as a vampire hunter will take care of a vampire.

The idea with Grombrindal is just to add a little extra to the board, and it will be a very nice way to show off a lovely miniature that doesn't really fit in to a traditional dwarf army.

I plan to use four blocks of wood as support to keep the top level in place, and around these I will have the tunnels so that I get as much light as possible in to the lower level of the display. Then the blocks of wood will keep everything in place without being visible. If I do it this way then placing the miniatures on the bottom level should be quite easy and still it will give the feel of a cave.

There will be a hole in the top level where my mine shaft is, so that the Grude Ponies can pass up and down to the mines below. Originally I had just planned to make a little hole in the styrofoam up top and paint it black to indicate a mine, but now I will build the ramp down to the lower level and maybe I will put Grombrindal in a cave behind that ramp. This depends a bit on the strength of the material and how big I need to make the ramp. I plan to carve the details out and then protect it with a thin coat with plaster strips. This will both add stability and make painting a lot easier. Then I will add thin wooden strips for mineshaft support girders.
In this area I will place miners and time will show if they will be working or if they are preparing to go fight.

In the main cave I will place the Irondrakes and the Night Goblins, but how I will do this I have not yet decided. I think I need to play around with the design and see how much space I have and how things will look.

On top I will need to make some changes to the gate to be able to field two cannons on the top guarding the entrance. This is just using some plasticard to raise the stone blocks, and should be done quite easily.
Then I will see if I should add an observation balloon or two as well as the Badyear Blimp, or if the blimp will be enough. I don't know this until I have made the design and seen how much space I have available on the mountain slopes.No matter what I end up with I will make some observation balloons for the army, as I think it would fit my back story with the engineer that has made the blimp. He started with balloons but then got the idea to take the balloons to the next level and thereby creating the blimp. But I will need to have some Gyrocopters in the display as well, so time will show what there is room to place on the board.

Slow but steady...

I haven't been good at finding time to paint these last few weeks, so it is just as well that I decided some time ago not to participate in Armies on Parade 2016. The arrangement was this weekend, and from what I've seen of pictures from Games Workshop in Oslo it looks like it was some great boards in the competition this year.

Last year there were just a few boards (including the winning one) that had any height to it, and this year most of the boards had height to them in one way or the other.

I might have to up my ideas a little more for my Dwarf borad next year to stand a chance in the competition. Maybe make some tunnels below ground level, and still do what I had planned for this year above ground...  

I do have lots of Night Goblins as I collect a mostly Goblin Greenskin army, so it won't be too hard to assemble a few units and field them in the caves advancing towards a section where my Ironbreakers and Irondrakes stands ready to fight them. I think I will need to start to think about this solution right away, and find out how I can place and remove miniatures from the tunnels...

Since the last update I have finished the two Runelords and the Warden King. They came with their own bases, so they just need a wash and then they are completely done.

My Rangers are still missing their axes and their crossbow bolt-pouches, but they are primed now, and the axes have one of four colors done. 

I've decided to give the Rangers the same Astrogranite bases as my other units to make the bases as unified as possible throughout the entire army, and then I will put grass turf on top of that to show that the Rangers are out in the nature. Later I will try and make the forest look the same.

The Imperial Dwarfs have gotten their chainmail painted, and I will soon start on the leather parts. I still have to decide what color to use on the wool parts of their vests though.

I have come quite a long way with my first unit of Warriors. At the moment I am painting the leather parts on them, and their chainmail, armor, clothes, skin and hair is already done. What remains after the leather parts are their helmets, and then I will have to prime and paint their weapons and the arm and hands attached to them. I have decided to go for a twenty strong unit armed with double-handed axes and with full command. Then the idea is to make a unit of the same size armed with a mix of hammers and axes and with shields.

Then I will see how many warriors I have left, and see if I should make a third unit or just add the remaining Warriors in to these two. Warrior units can be up to forty Warriors strong, so I don't have to worry about overstepping maximum unit size.

Haven't started on the blimp yet, but I have primed the pilot.

For characters this time, I am working on two Engineers, one with two pistols and one with a huge mechanical hammer of sorts. I also have an old Dwarf Lord leaning on his great-axe. I think I am about half way with them at the moment.